STID definitely did a better job with the main cast than XI did. There were a few scenes where Kirk and Spock actually reminded me of Shatner and Nimoy.

I'm afraid I do have to disagree with this. For me, Pine's portrayal in the 2009 movie was indisputably more Shatner-esque than what we got in STID, from the Kobyashi Maru sequence right through to the bits in the end of the movie where he had taken full control of the Enterprise, he reminded me far more of the (future) capable Starship commander from TOS in his STXI portrayal. By contrast, STID NuKirk felt to me like a step backwards, almost like his entire characterisation had been rewound back to that early bar fight scene from the first movie. I was disappointed with that aspect of STID.